Hey guys.

I apologize if this is a redundant question that has already been answered.
I have multiple systems in my area at school on the same LAN. Six of the systems have the exact same hardware specifications, about five of the other systems have different hardware specs. Is there a way that I can set these systems up in a "cluster" that the systems will work on a single work unit and communicate over the LAN to each other instead of each system working on an individual workunit? Wouldn't this be more efficient?

Also, is there a way I can setup remote management of the BOINC client. I currently use Remote Desktop and UltraVNC to manage the BOINC client and the system as a whole. I'd like to be able to manage just the BOINC client on the machines remotely if possible.

Thanks for your help!

Tavis

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Hello Tavis,

as even on hyperthreaded PCs, with only 2 virtual processors, it's considered as more efficient to crunch two WUs on each virtual CPU instead of 1 on both, I'd presume that it's even more so on real CPUs.

And as for the remote control of networks:
It's a build-in feature of boinc.
I've no need for it (and therefore no experience;), but perhaps the Wiki (link in my sig) and this thread can help you further.

And I've heard, that BoincView from the add-on page is good in the control area.

---

Gruesse vom Saenger

For questions about Boinc look in the BOINC-Wiki

Hello Tavis,

as even on hyperthreaded PCs, with only 2 virtual processors, it's considered as more efficient to crunch two WUs on each virtual CPU instead of 1 on both, I'd presume that it's even more so on real CPUs.

And as for the remote control of networks:
It's a build-in feature of boinc.
I've no need for it (and therefore no experience;), but perhaps the Wiki (link in my sig) and this thread can help you further.

And I've heard, that BoincView from the add-on page is good in the control area.

Are there any guides to clustering just to see how well (or badly) clustering would work?

Thanks,

Tavis

---

Hello Tavis,

I am not sure about clusters but I use BonicView and it does the trick. It takes a couple extra files being placed in the BONIC folder to get it to work with RPC calls but it is very convienient.

The two files you will need to add to your BONIC folder are:


remote_hosts.cfg place the hostnames of the computers you would like to be able to connect to the BONIC client. 1 per line

gui_rpc_auth.cfg place a password to connect to the BONIC client in this one.

after that you should be good to go.

Semper Fi,
-USMC__KopfJäger

A group of my students built a beowulf cluster about 3 years ago using 29 computers. They ran Linux and used Persistance of Vision (POV) raytracing rendering software to prove the technology. It worked slick.

The problem they ran into was that software must be specifically developed to utilize a cluster. You can't simply take any piece of software, load it into a cluster and expect it to work.

That was then - I hear that there is a new version of Linux out called Knoppix that is cluster ready. Furthermore, from what I've read, it will split work up between computers no matter what the software is. You might look into this.

A few drawbacks we found using clusters: Efficiency starting falling off dramatically after 20 computers. We found the most effective setup at 10 computers (through a 100Mbit switch). Many others that have created clusters report the same findings - less efficient the more computers added.

Also, I'm not sure a cluster would make processing work units any more effective. 10 computers each processing a work unit every 10 minutes or 10 computers together processing 1 work unit each minute for 10 mnutes. The result is the same. My students used the cluster to speed the process of raytracing an image to the screen. A single computer took 20 minutes to process each frame of their animation where their cluster could do each frame in 60 to 75 seconds. The end result being an animation finished in much less time.

Looks like a great project nonetheless for students to look into and and see if it can be done. My team called theirs "APOLLO" Accumulative Processing Over a Linked Linux Operation. I have a copy of their work on CD if you would like me to send you a copy.

-Terry

---

<img src="http://boinc.mundayweb.com/one/stats.php?userID=2263&amp;prj=1&amp;trans=off"><img src="http://seti.mundayweb.com/stats.php?userID=937&amp;trans=off">

Hello Tavis,

I am not sure about clusters but I use BonicView and it does the trick. It takes a couple extra files being placed in the BONIC folder to get it to work with RPC calls but it is very convienient.

The two files you will need to add to your BONIC folder are:


remote_hosts.cfg place the hostnames of the computers you would like to be able to connect to the BONIC client. 1 per line

gui_rpc_auth.cfg place a password to connect to the BONIC client in this one.

after that you should be good to go.

Semper Fi,
-USMC__KopfJäger

Hey again.
I made the config files so I can use BOINCView. I tested this on one of my machines that's running BOINC. I placed the two cfg's in the c:\Program Files\BOINC folder and put the appropriate text into the cfg's then restarted BOINC. When I went into BOINCView to add a new location and hit apply, it says "There seems to be no BOINC client behind port 1043. Use port anyway?" If I hit OK and try to look at the client, I get no results or text from the location.

---

A group of my students built a beowulf cluster about 3 years ago using 29 computers. They ran Linux and used Persistance of Vision (POV) raytracing rendering software to prove the technology. It worked slick.

The problem they ran into was that software must be specifically developed to utilize a cluster. You can't simply take any piece of software, load it into a cluster and expect it to work.

That was then - I hear that there is a new version of Linux out called Knoppix that is cluster ready. Furthermore, from what I've read, it will split work up between computers no matter what the software is. You might look into this.

A few drawbacks we found using clusters: Efficiency starting falling off dramatically after 20 computers. We found the most effective setup at 10 computers (through a 100Mbit switch). Many others that have created clusters report the same findings - less efficient the more computers added.

Also, I'm not sure a cluster would make processing work units any more effective. 10 computers each processing a work unit every 10 minutes or 10 computers together processing 1 work unit each minute for 10 mnutes. The result is the same. My students used the cluster to speed the process of raytracing an image to the screen. A single computer took 20 minutes to process each frame of their animation where their cluster could do each frame in 60 to 75 seconds. The end result being an animation finished in much less time.

Looks like a great project nonetheless for students to look into and and see if it can be done. My team called theirs "APOLLO" Accumulative Processing Over a Linked Linux Operation. I have a copy of their work on CD if you would like me to send you a copy.

-Terry

Very interesting! I'd like to check it out. Is there a way you could host and I could download an ISO of the CD?

Tavis

---

A group of my students built a beowulf cluster about 3 years ago using 29 computers. They ran Linux and used Persistance of Vision (POV) raytracing rendering software to prove the technology. It worked slick.

The problem they ran into was that software must be specifically developed to utilize a cluster. You can't simply take any piece of software, load it into a cluster and expect it to work.

That was then - I hear that there is a new version of Linux out called Knoppix that is cluster ready. Furthermore, from what I've read, it will split work up between computers no matter what the software is. You might look into this.

A few drawbacks we found using clusters: Efficiency starting falling off dramatically after 20 computers. We found the most effective setup at 10 computers (through a 100Mbit switch). Many others that have created clusters report the same findings - less efficient the more computers added.

Also, I'm not sure a cluster would make processing work units any more effective. 10 computers each processing a work unit every 10 minutes or 10 computers together processing 1 work unit each minute for 10 mnutes. The result is the same. My students used the cluster to speed the process of raytracing an image to the screen. A single computer took 20 minutes to process each frame of their animation where their cluster could do each frame in 60 to 75 seconds. The end result being an animation finished in much less time.

Looks like a great project nonetheless for students to look into and and see if it can be done. My team called theirs "APOLLO" Accumulative Processing Over a Linked Linux Operation. I have a copy of their work on CD if you would like me to send you a copy.

-Terry

Very interesting! I'd like to check it out. Is there a way you could host and I could download an ISO of the CD?

Tavis

Our school's proxy blocks all FTP access. Send your mailing address to me at ritch-t (at) vscc.k12.oh.us and I'll send you a copy of the CD.

If you have access to a server I could FTP to from home I can upload the ISO if you like as well.

Either way, let me know.

-Terry

---

<img src="http://boinc.mundayweb.com/one/stats.php?userID=2263&amp;prj=1&amp;trans=off"><img src="http://seti.mundayweb.com/stats.php?userID=937&amp;trans=off">

Hello Tavis,

I am not sure about clusters but I use BonicView and it does the trick. It takes a couple extra files being placed in the BONIC folder to get it to work with RPC calls but it is very convienient.

The two files you will need to add to your BONIC folder are:


remote_hosts.cfg place the hostnames of the computers you would like to be able to connect to the BONIC client. 1 per line

gui_rpc_auth.cfg place a password to connect to the BONIC client in this one.

after that you should be good to go.

Semper Fi,
-USMC__KopfJäger

Hey again.
I made the config files so I can use BOINCView. I tested this on one of my machines that's running BOINC. I placed the two cfg's in the c:Program FilesBOINC folder and put the appropriate text into the cfg's then restarted BOINC. When I went into BOINCView to add a new location and hit apply, it says "There seems to be no BOINC client behind port 1043. Use port anyway?" If I hit OK and try to look at the client, I get no results or text from the location.

Once the cfg files have been created (on each target for remote control) that instance of BOINC must be restarted to read the cfg files.

---

BOINC WIKI

Hello Tavis,

I am not sure about clusters but I use BonicView and it does the trick. It takes a couple extra files being placed in the BONIC folder to get it to work with RPC calls but it is very convienient.

The two files you will need to add to your BONIC folder are:


remote_hosts.cfg place the hostnames of the computers you would like to be able to connect to the BONIC client. 1 per line

gui_rpc_auth.cfg place a password to connect to the BONIC client in this one.

after that you should be good to go.

Semper Fi,
-USMC__KopfJäger

Hey again.
I made the config files so I can use BOINCView. I tested this on one of my machines that's running BOINC. I placed the two cfg's in the c:Program FilesBOINC folder and put the appropriate text into the cfg's then restarted BOINC. When I went into BOINCView to add a new location and hit apply, it says "There seems to be no BOINC client behind port 1043. Use port anyway?" If I hit OK and try to look at the client, I get no results or text from the location.

Once the cfg files have been created (on each target for remote control) that instance of BOINC must be restarted to read the cfg files.

John - That's what I did and I still recieve the message from BOINCView.

Terry - OK, I have a private FTP already setup. I would think that would be better than hassling with email and an attachment size limit (even if you can hold 2GB of email). I will get back with you after classes today. Thanks!

---

Hello Tavis,

I am not sure about clusters but I use BonicView and it does the trick. It takes a couple extra files being placed in the BONIC folder to get it to work with RPC calls but it is very convienient.

The two files you will need to add to your BONIC folder are:


remote_hosts.cfg place the hostnames of the computers you would like to be able to connect to the BONIC client. 1 per line

gui_rpc_auth.cfg place a password to connect to the BONIC client in this one.

after that you should be good to go.

Semper Fi,
-USMC__KopfJäger

Hey again.
I made the config files so I can use BOINCView. I tested this on one of my machines that's running BOINC. I placed the two cfg's in the c:Program FilesBOINC folder and put the appropriate text into the cfg's then restarted BOINC. When I went into BOINCView to add a new location and hit apply, it says "There seems to be no BOINC client behind port 1043. Use port anyway?" If I hit OK and try to look at the client, I get no results or text from the location.

Once the cfg files have been created (on each target for remote control) that instance of BOINC must be restarted to read the cfg files.

John - That's what I did and I still recieve the message from BOINCView.

Terry - OK, I have a private FTP already setup. I would think that would be better than hassling with email and an attachment size limit (even if you can hold 2GB of email). I will get back with you after classes today. Thanks!

John - Actually, I went to their homepage and noticed that I needed a switch (-allow_remote_gui_rpc) when running the boinc.exe file. It's working great now! Thanks!

---

Hello Tavis,

I am not sure about clusters but I use BonicView and it does the trick. It takes a couple extra files being placed in the BONIC folder to get it to work with RPC calls but it is very convienient.

The two files you will need to add to your BONIC folder are:


remote_hosts.cfg place the hostnames of the computers you would like to be able to connect to the BONIC client. 1 per line

gui_rpc_auth.cfg place a password to connect to the BONIC client in this one.

after that you should be good to go.

Semper Fi,
-USMC__KopfJäger

Hey again.
I made the config files so I can use BOINCView. I tested this on one of my machines that's running BOINC. I placed the two cfg's in the c:Program FilesBOINC folder and put the appropriate text into the cfg's then restarted BOINC. When I went into BOINCView to add a new location and hit apply, it says "There seems to be no BOINC client behind port 1043. Use port anyway?" If I hit OK and try to look at the client, I get no results or text from the location.

Once the cfg files have been created (on each target for remote control) that instance of BOINC must be restarted to read the cfg files.

John - That's what I did and I still recieve the message from BOINCView.

Terry - OK, I have a private FTP already setup. I would think that would be better than hassling with email and an attachment size limit (even if you can hold 2GB of email). I will get back with you after classes today. Thanks!

I'll look for your email shortly then.

-Terry

---

<img src="http://boinc.mundayweb.com/one/stats.php?userID=2263&amp;prj=1&amp;trans=off"><img src="http://seti.mundayweb.com/stats.php?userID=937&amp;trans=off">